Lately, Vanilla Ice has been popping up quite a bit in the automotive realm. He was the honorary pace car driver at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pocono 400 this month, where he was in the winner’s circle with Joey Logano. He drove a Mustang 5.0 in the new Adam Sandler film “That’s My Boy.” And he was the target of an Internet hoax saying he died in a car crash, forcing him to dispel the rumor via his Twitter feed.

But it’s no joke that Vanilla Ice, aka Robert Van Winkle, is a serious car enthusiast. When he’s not remodeling homes on his popular DIY show “The Vanilla Ice Project,” the original white rapper and actor is happily cruising around in one of his many cars, or in the garage working on them. And the latest movie buzz is that he’ll be back, back, baby…in the Michael Bay reboot of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Van Winkle spoke to Motor Trend at length about cars on his way home from a home trade show. “I know everybody has a daily car, but believe it or not, I don’t. I have a “mood car.” Whatever mood I’m in, I’ll drive that car. I have a couple dozen cars, so to me if I feel I’ve neglected one of them, I’ll jump in one of those,” he says.

If he’s going on an errand to the hardware store, he drives his customized 2008 Lincoln Mark LT. But he has the biggest soft spot for his classic Cadillacs, all of which are DeVilles. He gives them all a perfect 10 rating.

“I love Cadillac. I’ve got tattoos of Cadillacs all over me,” he says. “I’ve got a 1937 Cadillac wing emblem.” He adds that if he sees a Cadillac emblem, he can tell what year it is. “Every year Cadillac changes their emblem. Some of them have the wreath, some of them have an arch over the wreath, some of them have these little dots, almost like a crown.”

“In the ’60s they owned the world,” he says. “They were the innovators. They were the first car company to ever introduce plastics in the cars. Now, you can build a whole car out of plastic. They were the first ones to introduce the electric trunk, automatic dimming high beam, low beam. That was all in the ’60s. They were above every car company in the world in the ’60s. They owned it. So that piece of history was America’s proudest moment of car manufacturing, because they were on top of their game in the ’60s.”

“Those are the cool cars that anybody with money can buy, but the ones I’m really proud about are my Cadillac collection,” he says. “I live in Palm Beach, so a Ferrari is just a sports car. And in Palm Beach a lot of people have those. Not a lot of people have these Cadillacs, though.”

Of all of the Cadillacs in his fleet, Van Winkle is the most proud of the one that no one else has: his 1964 Cadillac Deville, seen in the hit comedy “48 Hrs.” with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.

“I was specifically asking for a ’64 and the reason why I wanted a ’64 was because Cadillac came out with these huge fins in ’59. The last year of the fins was ’64 and it was also the last year of the big engine,” he says. “It was also the last year where they had that fat grille across the front with the side headlights like that.”

He knew someone in California who had ties to buying movie cars, and when the car became available, Van Winkle was warned it wasn’t in great condition, but he saw the value in it.

“I’ve had it completely frame-off restored.” he says, adding that he invested $140,000 into the car. “It’s a very rare car to begin with — they only made 1,400 of these cars in 1964 and this one has the big 429 engine. I wanted that car because it was a movie car. The history of the car means a lot in the value. So the fact that this is an actual movie car in a blockbuster hit movie makes it even that much more attractive and valuable.”

On a scale of 1 to 10, he rates it off the charts. “This is a 10,000,” he says. “It gets about 4 miles to the gallon, but it’s got a lot of power. It’s a big boat, it’s 19 and a half feet long. Every nut and bolt has been powder-coated. You can eat off the undercarriage.”

While it does get some road time, it’s never seen the rain, since Van Winkle keeps it a pristine show car. “I’ve had it 15 years now and it is immaculate. It’s just a beauty.”

His fleet of restored Cadillacs includes a 1967, a 1978, and several project cars that he calls “rust buckets” for now. “All my cars are DeVilles,” he says. “I don’t like El Dorados because they’re front-wheel drive.”

His 1978 DeVille was customized by West Coast Customs and it’s on hydraulics and can be parallel parked via a remote control. “It will bounce up and down. My kids love it — they think it’s a roller coaster,” he says. “It’s a toy.”

After bursting onto the music scene three decades ago, in recent years his career has gone beyond music, attracting a new fan base from his hit DIY show “The Vanilla Ice Project.”

His movie career has been doing well. If he appears in the next Ninja Turtles flick, he would reach another generation of fans that can sing along to the “Ninja Rap” like he did in the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Part II.”

When he has time off, Van Winkle gets together with his buddies who also own classic Cadillacs. They have formed a car club in Palm Beach he dubbed Cadillac Ninjas.

“We all have the same tattoo. We all call each other when it’s time to rally up and we’ll go to these little car shows. We’ll pull out our lawn chairs and reminisce about every little detail from gas caps to emblems and every little cool thing about Cadillacs,” he says.

Van Winkle has done charity work with a Cadillac as a centerpiece. “One of the things I did for terminally ill kids was I took a 1967 Cadillac and jumped it into a lake on fire. It’s on YouTube. We raised awareness for Little Smiles and Make a Wish Foundation, so it worked out really good.”

Van Winkle always has a car project in the works. He’s currently restoring a 1968 Cadillac LaSalle. “A really cool car, very rare, only made a few years,” he says. “I’ll go through a two to three year process of taking millions of pictures, video, and cutting all the rust out and putting all new parts and getting it all polished back up like a diamond.”

While he doesn’t do the restoration himself, Van Winkle does do some of the work. “I’ll go out and put a bumper one of my cars, stuff like that, but I don’t do the body work or the paint or the interior work,” he says. “I do stereo work and certain meticulous little things I’m pretty good at.”

Van Winkle also enjoys welding. “I had to fix the suspension, so I had to run the exhaust around a little bit different,” he says. “It was rattling against the frame, so I cut it, dented it and heated it up. Little things like that I can tinker with. I can’t sell these cars because I get emotionally attached to them. So that’s why I’ve got so many.”

In addition to his Cadillacs, Van Winkle also appreciates his 2010 Rolls-Royce Phantom. “I’ve been to the factory and I’ve got number three out of 2010. I’ve got one of the rare Phantoms. It’s black with white leather. They’re all hand-made so they’re all a little bit different. I found this in Beverly Hills off eBay,” he says. “I was specifically looking for a real unique car and found this and shipped it to Florida.”

He says he has a whole respect for the Phantom because of his factory visit. “I got a special VIP tour and it’s amazing. You could eat off the floor in there.”

He gives the Phantom a perfect 10. “That is the greatest-built car ever, because of how much attention they do to every detail,” he says. “The wood inside the car is a piece of wood that has been sitting in a river for 500 years marinating and the cold temperatures turn the colors of the wood. The leather that they use is hand-picked,” he says. “It’s the most exotic, extreme, perfect flawless leather. They only make 1000 a year and that’s for the entire world. So you get a piece of handmade history. It’s almost like a real precious piece of jewelry. This car is really a collector’s item.”

Car he learned to drive in

Van Winkle was born in Dallas and raised in Miami, where he learned to drive in a 1991 GMC Syclone. “I used to race dirt bikes, so I had a pickup, a twin-turbo truck. It was really fast, all-wheel drive, a 10-second quarter-mile car, which was perfect for a little teenager,” he says. “They’re a classic collector’s car right now. I wish I never sold it but at the time I didn’t know it would be a collectors car.”

He bought the Syclone with money he made from racing dirt bikes. “I was just becoming Vanilla Ice,” he says. “I used to spin on my head, chase the girls around the mall, eat pizza, watch a movie, and still have some change leftover. So I was heavily influenced by the whole break dancing movement when it first came in. So I started my own little break dancing crew and would hang out in front of the mall and spin on my head with a piece of cardboard and a jam box, and people would give me money. It was great.”

A year after buying the Syclone, he says he sold 160 million copies of “Ice, Ice Baby” and that was the end of that car. “After that hit, it was straight to Lamborghinis! I bought a 1991 Acura NSX. They didn’t make them in white and I bought one and painted it white, the first one in the country. White with white leather, the only one ever made. Then I went from there to a Lamborghini Diablo.”

Favorite road trip

Van Winkle has a 2008 Ford E450 van that’s wrapped with the words “The Vanilla Ice Project” and is decorated with his logo of Cupid with a machine gun. “Same concept as the old Cupid, but instead of love arrows, he shoots love bullets spreading good love,” he says.

He takes the van on road trips and stores dirt bikes in the back. “The kids love it and it drives smooth as a Cadillac on the highway,” he says. “So it’s a road-tripping machine. I’m in it right now.”

He loves driving it to Key West. “It’s a beautiful drive down there. We can pull out the dirt bikes and go riding around,” he says. “We also use it to go to Disney. We can throw in all of our luggage and they can watch TV. It’s a box van and it’s made by Supreme in the back. On the inside it would be empty when you buy it and what I did is renovate the whole inside and turned it into a palace. It’s got hot and cold water. I put a shower in it, it’s got bunks in it, huge big-screen movie theater with surround sound in it. It’s really nice.”

He can drive to Key Largo in an hour and Key West in about two hours away. “I go through Islamorada and that drive is the most beautiful drive you’ve ever seen,” he says. “You’ve got the Gulf of Mexico on the right and looking out on your left you’ve got the Atlantic Ocean. Then you get to Key West. I love just getting away and just marinating down there and eating good and just relaxing.”

“The Vanilla Ice Project” on DIY

DIY currently is airing Season Two of Van Winkle’s home renovation show “The Vanilla Ice Project,” with Season Three slated to air in early 2013.

“In Season Two now I put in the coolest features you’ve ever seen in a home,” he says. “I also had a house in England for a while, so I get a lot of influence from Europe. I have a pneumatic elevator, a floating Murphy bed that comes out of the ceiling, an electronic library, an electronic office desk, an electronic wet bar.”

The show on DIY was created out of Van Winkle’s years of buying rundown homes and completely transforming them, the way he enjoys doing with his Cadillacs.

At first, Van Winkle didn’t know if it would be interesting for viewers to watch what he has been doing privately for years. “I thought, ‘Who the heck wants to see me put some paint and carpet on a house?'” he says. “But the way I’m doing it, I’m showcasing all the new, modern state-of-the-art home features and it’s really fun to watch. They bought the programming over in the UK. It’s showing in South Africa, Australia, and Canada, so we’re really proud,” he says.

Despite his busy schedule, Van Winkle doesn’t feel overwhelmed. “When you’re happy about what you do, you don’t think of it like you’re busy,” he says. “But when you’re doing something that’s dragging you out and you get frustrated, then it’ll seem like it’s more work. I’m enjoying it. It is work — there’s no B team to come in and finish the construction when the cameras stop rolling.”

Season Three promises to be an interesting one, and features a house that was damaged by lightning. “It’s a beautiful house in a great location on a beautiful property on the ocean. I’m going to completely strip it back down to the cinder blocks and put a new roof, new swimming pool, new interior, modern home features.”

Van Winkle has another show on DIY called “Ice My House.” It’s tied to a contest to win a $30,000 renovation to have him “Ice” a room in your house. Entries are due by July 2.